Postural Assessment Software (PAS/SAPO): Validation and Reliabiliy

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to estimate the accuracy of the postural assessment software (PAS/SAPO) for measurement of corporal angles and distances as well as the inter- and intra-rater reliabilities. INTRODUCTION: Postural assessment software was developed as a subsidiary tool for postural assessment. It is easy to use and available in the public domain. Nonetheless, validation studies are lacking. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 88 pictures from 22 subjects, and each subject was assessed twice (1 week interval) by 5 blinded raters. Inter- and intra-rater reliabilities were estimated using the intraclass correlation coefficient. To estimate the accuracy of the software, an inanimate object was marked with hallmarks using pre-established parameters. Pictures of the object were rated, and values were checked against the known parameters. RESULTS: Inter-rater reliability was excellent for 41% of the variables and very good for 35%. Ten percent of the variables had acceptable reliability, and 14% were defined as non-acceptable. For intra-rater reliability, 44.8% of the measurements were considered to be excellent, 23.5% were very good, 12.4% were acceptable and 19.3% were considered non-acceptable. Angular measurements had a mean error analisys of 0.11°, and the mean error analisys for distance was 1.8 mm. DISCUSSION: Unacceptable intraclass correlation coefficient values typically used the vertical line as a reference, and this may have increased the inaccuracy of the estimates. Increased accuracies were obtained by younger raters with more sophisticated computer skills, suggesting that past experience influenced results. CONCLUSION: The postural assessment software was accurate for measuring corporal angles and distances and should be considered as a reliable tool for postural assessment

MadAlegria – Palhaços de hospital: proposta multidisciplinar de humanização em saúde

The objective of this article is to describe the project MadAlegria as a multi-disciplinary proposal of humanizationin healthcare. MadAlegria is a multidisciplinary extension project of the School of Medicine of University of São Paulo initiated in August 2010. The project includes students of Nursing, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Medicine, Nutrition and Occupational Therapy, who develop cultural, scientific and educational activities related with the humanization of the relationship with the patient and with the health professionals. The students act as hospital clowns and storytellers as a vehicle for the engagement.The project aims to tendering the hospital environment for patients and for the health professionals and to influencing the education of heath care students, seeking to shape differentiated professionals that can work in an interdisciplinary and humanized way. In two years of existence 78 people were trained as hospital clowns and 35 underwent a storytelling course. In this period the students made 2020 visits as hospital clowns, targeting a population of adult patients. The post visit reports indicate a positive change in the quality of the student-patient contact, as well as a more affective and understanding approach by the student. Patients refer satisfaction and rarely reject the clown’s presence. These contacts offer the students the opportunity to get closer to patients with no professional expectations, but with freedom to listen and to empathize with the other’s pain and sorrow and eventually help minimizing it. The MadAlegria program supports the discussion on the importance of humanization strategies during hospital care activities as well as in the education of health professionals.O objetivo deste artigo é descrever o projeto MadAlegriacomo uma proposta de humanização em saúde. O MadAlegria é um projeto de extensão universitária da Faculdadede Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo criado em agosto de 2010, com caráter multidisciplinar. Inclui alunos dos cursos de Enfermagem, Fisioterapia, Fonoaudiologia, Medicina, Nutrição e Terapia Ocupacional, os quais desenvolvematividades culturais, científicas e educacionais relacionadas à humanização do relacionamento com o paciente e com a equipe de saúde. A linguagem utilizada para a comunicação é a lúdica; pela atuação como palhaços de hospital e contadores de história. O projeto tem como finalidade amenizar o ambiente hospitalar e os diferentes cenários de saúde, para os pacientes e para a equipe de trabalho, e influenciar na formação dos alunos da área da saúde com intuito de obter profissionais diferenciados, que possam exercer sua profissão de maneira humanizada e interdisciplinar. Durante os dois anos de existência, foram formados 78 palhaços de hospital, sendo que a formação tem um ano de treinamento, e o curso de contação de histórias foi oferecido para 35 pessoas. A população alvo do projeto é adulto e em dois anos foram realizados 2.020 atendimentos como palhaços no hospital. Os relatórios elaboradospelos alunos após os atendimentos demonstram que há uma mudança positiva na qualidade do contato entre o aluno e o paciente e que o aluno tende a dedicar ao paciente um olhar mais compreensivo e afetivo. Os pacientesreferem satisfação e raramente rejeitam a presença do palhaço. É uma oportunidade do aluno da área de saúde se aproximar do paciente sem a obrigação de desempenhar o papel de profissional, mas com a liberdade de ouvir, se sensibilizarcom a dor do outro e atuar naquele momento para minimizar a tristeza ou dor ou simplesmente compartilhar aquela experiência de internação hospitalar. O Programa MadAlegria colabora para a discussão da importância de estratégias de humanização no atendimento hospitalar e na formação do profissional de saúde

Transcriptomic Characterization of a Synergistic Genetic Interaction during Carpel Margin Meristem Development in Arabidopsis thaliana

In flowering plants the gynoecium is the female reproductive structure. In Arabidopsis thaliana ovules initiate within the developing gynoecium from meristematic tissue located along the margins of the floral carpels. When fertilized the ovules will develop into seeds. SEUSS (SEU) and AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) encode transcriptional regulators that are critical for the proper formation of ovules from the carpel margin meristem (CMM). The synergistic loss of ovule initiation observed in the seu ant double mutant suggests that SEU and ANT share overlapping functions during CMM development. However the molecular mechanism underlying this synergistic interaction is unknown. Using the ATH1 transcriptomics platform we identified transcripts that were differentially expressed in seu ant double mutant relative to wild type and single mutant gynoecia. In particular we sought to identify transcripts whose expression was dependent on the coordinated activities of the SEU and ANT gene products. Our analysis identifies a diverse set of transcripts that display altered expression in the seu ant double mutant tissues. The analysis of overrepresented Gene Ontology classifications suggests a preponderance of transcriptional regulators including multiple members of the REPRODUCTIVE MERISTEMS (REM) and GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR (GRF) families are mis-regulated in the seu ant gynoecia. Our in situ hybridization analyses indicate that many of these genes are preferentially expressed within the developing CMM. This study is the first step toward a detailed description of the transcriptional regulatory hierarchies that control the development of the CMM and ovule initiation. Understanding the regulatory hierarchy controlled by SEU and ANT will clarify the molecular mechanism of the functional redundancy of these two genes and illuminate the developmental and molecular events required for CMM development and ovule initiation

Factors influencing terrestriality in primates of the Americas and Madagascar

Among mammals, the order Primates is exceptional in having a high taxonomic richness in which the taxa are arboreal, semiterrestrial, or terrestrial. Although habitual terrestriality is pervasive among the apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), it is largely absent among monkeys of the Americas (platyrrhines), as well as galagos, lemurs, and lorises (strepsirrhines), which are mostly arboreal. Numerous ecological drivers and species-specific factors are suggested to set the conditions for an evolutionary shift from arboreality to terrestriality, and current environmental conditions may provide analogous scenarios to those transitional periods. Therefore, we investigated predominantly arboreal, diurnal primate genera from the Americas and Madagascar that lack fully terrestrial taxa, to determine whether ecological drivers (habitat canopy cover, predation risk, maximum temperature, precipitation, primate species richness, human population density, and distance to roads) or species-specific traits (bodymass, group size, and degree of frugivory) associate with increased terrestriality. We collated 150,961 observation hours across 2,227 months from 47 species at 20 sites in Madagascar and 48 sites in the Americas. Multiple factors were associated with ground use in these otherwise arboreal species, including increased temperature, a decrease in canopy cover, a dietary shift away from frugivory, and larger group size. These factors mostly explain intraspecific differences in terrestriality. As humanity modifies habitats and causes climate change, our results suggest that species already inhabiting hot, sparsely canopied sites, and exhibiting more generalized diets, are more likely to shift toward greater ground use

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Structural MRI predicts clinical progression in presymptomatic genetic frontotemporal dementia: findings from the GENetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative (GENFI) cohort

Abstract Biomarkers that can predict disease progression in individuals with genetic frontotemporal dementia are urgently needed. We aimed to identify whether baseline MRI-based grey and white matter abnormalities are associated with different clinical progression profiles in presymptomatic mutation carriers in the GENetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative. 387 mutation carriers were included (160 GRN, 160 C9orf72, 67 MAPT), together with 240 non-carrier cognitively normal controls. Cortical and subcortical grey matter volumes were generated using automated parcellation methods on volumetric 3 T T1-weighted MRI scans, while white matter characteristics were estimated using diffusion tensor imaging. Mutation carriers were divided into two disease stages based on their global CDR®+NACC-FTLD score: presymptomatic (0 or 0.5) and fully symptomatic (1 or greater). W-scores in each grey matter volumes and white matter diffusion measures were computed to quantify the degree of abnormality compared to controls for each presymptomatic carrier, adjusting for their age, sex, total intracranial volume, and scanner type. Presymptomatic carriers were classified as “normal” or “abnormal” based on whether their grey matter volume and white matter diffusion measure w-scores were above or below the cut point corresponding to the 10th percentile of the controls. We then compared the change in disease severity between baseline and one year later in both the “normal” and “abnormal” groups within each genetic subtype, as measured by the CDR®+NACC-FTLD sum-of-boxes score and revised Cambridge Behavioural Inventory total score. Overall, presymptomatic carriers with normal regional w-scores at baseline did not progress clinically as much as those with abnormal regional w-scores. Having abnormal grey or white matter measures at baseline was associated with a statistically significant increase in the CDR®+NACC-FTLD of up to 4 points in C9orf72 expansion carriers, and 5 points in the GRN group as well as a statistically significant increase in the revised Cambridge Behavioural Inventory of up to 11 points in MAPT, 10 points in GRN, and 8 points in C9orf72 mutation carriers. Baseline regional brain abnormalities on MRI in presymptomatic mutation carriers are associated with different profiles of clinical progression over time. These results may be helpful to inform stratification of participants in future trials